New Blog

So I really want to get back into posting regularly and so I decided to start a new blog that is more about my family than just about me and what I am doing . . . so this will be my last post here. You can find me now at theroundys.blogspot.com

I am just getting started, forgot how long it takes to really get going on a blog and move things over. I promise there will be posts worth reading soon.

Quick Update

More to follow with photos soon, but real quick here is what has happened since I last posted in March.

April . . . went to Boise for Ricky and Julie's Wedding, then they came to visit us on their way to Virginia for the summer

May . . . work was nuts with my summer install season and we found a house that we liked and contracted for it to be built for us. Plus . . . little brother Jacob moved in with us.

June . . . tried to catch up on our lives and work . . . no real sales options on our house so decided we may rent it out.

July . . . this was the crazy one . . . closed on a new house, moved, painted, found a tenant and leased the old one, Eric's family visited to help us move, Eric had a birthday . . . not sure what else . . . oh yeah bought lots of furniture and things for the new house.

Boy am I glad that August in here. Still have some more painting to do, waiting on some furniture deliveries, and who knows what else, but on an excited note, I am starting to work only 3 days a week so I get to have time to be a wife and still have some time on the weekends to spend with my husband.

For Sale

Yes it has been forever, I know, I've been busy. Work, life, being sick a lot, everything seems to keep me away from here.

Eric and I have been planning to put my house on the market for a little while now and on Wednesday night we met with the realtor to get the ball rolling. So this weekend we spent the whole weekend staging the house so that we could take some photos and hopefully help it sell faster. This was way more work than it sounds like it should have been.

When Eric moved in there was some added furniture that came with him along with a lot of clothes and stuff to store in the basement. At the same time we recieved all of our wedding gifts and many of them ended up in the basement as well waiting for the day that we would have a bigger house and could enjoy them. Well, we never really had the chance to organize it all and go through what we wanted to keep at the house and what we wanted to store in the storage unit that we have with all of Eric's furniture. So that is what we finally spent our weekend doing. Not exciting but definatly productive.

We took pictures yesterday . . . hope they help.

I Voted!!

I live in Illinois. This is a fact. It is also a fact that 5 out of our last 7 governors are or have been in jail or are headed there. Yesterday another alderman plead guilty to corruption charges, he makes 28. Awesome aren't we. "Chicago politics" has become the namesake of corruption in this nation.

That being said today was our primary election. There has been a lot of talk about this election and how republicans could take over what has been staunchly democratic for some time.

Now those that know me and my politics know that while I am conservative I am not affiliated with either party. In fact I find the whole partisan system to be corrupt, but alas it is what it is. And today was a primary election so I had to decide which party to vote with. Being the conservative that I am I voted wtih the republicans.

Now the cute moment. So it is all senior citizens that run the polling places around here and the people ahead of me were voting democrat. When the lady went to hand me a republican ballot she said to me whispering "there has been a big republican turn out today, usually all democrat, but people are fed up with what is going on and excited to vote republican." I found it very cute that she would tell me, and even more cute that she felt the need to whisper, but also very exciting. Maybe some in Chicago and Illinois are finally deciding that they are tired of the pattern of corruption and ready to try for something better.

Ice Cream for Breakfast :)

My wonderful husband is above all things a sugar addict. He loves all things sweet, especially syrup, cookies, and ice cream.

So on Friday night we were discussing what we wanted for breakfast the next morning. Saturdays we usually make something yummy for breakfast and take a break from our cold cereal ritual. We decided on crepes. I love crepes and had them for breakfast growing up and always enjoy them. Plus I had some frozed berries that I wanted to fill them with. Sounds yummy right?

After we decided on the crepes Eric mentioned putting vanilla ice cream in them as well. I kind of laughed it off thinking he was joking because really, who eats ice cream for breakfast?

Well Saturday morning came and we got up and started making breakfast. I made the crepes and Eric thawed the fruit and added a little sugar to make a sort of syrup out of the juice (always yummy). He got out the powdered sugar and I thought we were good to go. Next think I know the big bucket of vanilla ice cream was sitting on the table. I laughed and followed his lead and put some in my crepe.

It was fabulous! It was totally dessert for breakfast and I would totally do it again! I have discovered another perk to being married to Eric; I can have ice cream for breakfast ;)

I'm becoming domesticated . . .

I work a lot . . . this is not new news. In fact in my single days I ate frozen meals for lunch and microwave popcorn for dinner a lot of the time because that is all that I had time for. Sad I know. Especially since I have always loved to cook. Not much of a baker, but I love cooking.

So this year for Christmas I put cook books on my wish list. I had gotten 3 as wedding/shower gifts, but I read them like novels so a few more would always be nice. Well I got my wish. My husband got me one, plus to cooking magazine subscriptions, my mother in law bought me one, and my wonderful mother got me four (one of which included a free year long magazine subscription). So if you did the math right you would see that I got six cook books, plus three subscriptions.

Don't know what you think, but that is a lot. Of course, I was excited about all of them. Granted I had to make more room on the counter for them and I will need to find another more permanant locaiton because they are taking up tons of my counter space.

So anyway . . . I have been reading away. There are so many new recipes and techniques that I want to try but finding time to cook and try new things during the week seems impossible. But I do find myself actually cooking pretty much everynight. But it makes me wonder what is happening to me. I am finally making a point to plan out meals and pick our recipies and actually follow it for the most part.

I am just starting to realize that I am putting in more effort at home and domestic issues than I have over the past, I don't know, ten years since I left home. Funny how being married has changed things.

Summertime already??

I know most of you find that blog title totally nuts, but let me explain.

So I do landscaping for a living right . . . more specifically I work with flower displays for a living. So let me explain to you what my January is like at work.

Revising my order and working on sales for all of our early Spring flowers, ie Pansies, Tulips, etc.

Diving head first into Summer flower display designs, sales, and ordering. I spend half of my day looking at flower photos, working up ideas, and focusing on our summer plans. I work with bright colors, light, and all things tropical.

My office is a gray cinderblock room with bright flower photos and other photos all over the walls (because gray does not drive creativity). So I spend my day looking at summer and then walk out into the frozen winter to go home.

So in reality, I have no idea what season it is. Does anyone else understand my confusion?

Christmas is coming . . . traditions?

Christmas is one of my favorite holidays. Always has been. It has always been one of my favorite times spent with my family. We have created our share of unique Christmas traditions over the years. Everything from seeing how many puzzles we can do in our days together, to our version of Christmas Eve dinner, and one of my all time favorites "Christmas Crunch".

This year is going to be different. For the first time in my life I won't be having Christmas with my family in Meridian. We will be spending Christmas with Eric's family in Nebraska. While I am excited to spend some time with them and get to know them better, I will miss my family terribly and our funny Christmas traditions.

But this has got me thinking about Eric and I creating some Christmas traditions of our own. This being our first Christmas together I don't really know where to start. I have all my Christmas shopping done and Eric is almost done with his. Shopping together has been fun, interesting, but fun. Eric put up lights on the house, the decorations are put up all over, gifts are wrapped under the tree, so it seems like we are pretty much ready. Only a couple things left to do.

All I have left to ask is what kind of traditions do we want to have in our new family. I realize traditions tend to create themselves so we'll have to see what happens. My question for you is, what is your favorite Christmas Tradition?

Am I the strange one?

I love college football. This is not new news to those who know me well. I look forward to the fall season and weekends full of great games to watch. I have two favorite teams that I cheer for, but am a fan of the game in general so enjoy any good match up.

When Eric and I started dating I was excited to discover that he was a fan as well. I had tried to date guys in the past who weren't sports fans and it just didn't work out. Kind of one of those deal breakers for me I guess. As shallow as that may seem.

Anyway . . . all of the sudden I am trying to decide if my obsession is strange. I find that mine and Eric's dinner table conversations have a tendency to be about football, especially on the weekends! We do spend our weekends checking in on games, scores in general, and watching what we can and then talking about it with folks at church. We even scheduled things right on our honeymoon so that we wouldn't miss the Boise State game that Thursday night. Now I didn't really think about this being strange until yesterday morning when Eric and I were talking on the phone. I found a need to update him on the new BCS rankings and of course complain about how ridiculous I think they are.

I realize that it is good for couples to have things in common, but I am starting to wonder if maybe I am too interested in college football. What wife does this? Shouldn't I be the one complaining that my husband watches too much football? (Not that he does because I watch more than he does, I think) Not normal I think. I know i'm not your typical girl, never have been. But does this one make me a little too strange?

Honeymoon :)

Eric spent a lot of time planning a perfect honeymoon. I love the outdoors, I love New England and I love the fall and I got a combination of all three. He planned a sightseeing trip to see New England's beautiful fall color. The day after our wedding we took an early morning flight to Boston. When we got there we headed to Vermont. That night we stayed in Quechee. I had been there once with my family years ago so it was fun to go back. The next day we had a great breakfast at a very cozy restaurant and then went to a Christmas store which always makes me happy. We then went to see Quechee Gorge. Somehow my family missed this when we were there but it was breathtaking. Sorry none of these pictures do justice to what we saw.

There was a short hike along the gorge where we saw a nice lake and a great view of the bridge.

We then went to visit a maple sugar farm and visited some waterfalls along the way. Eric had located quite a few possible hikes and the two that we picked were no more than 100 feet. One was actally closed which was a little dissapointing, but still it was a beautiful drive and we had a lot of fun.

That night we drove north to Burlington, VT. It was a beautiful drive through the Green Mountains. The next day we drove south along Lake Champlaign and took a ferry accross to New York where we visited Fort Tichonderoga. That has to be one of the most amazing reconstructions of a historic site that I have ever seen. It was awesome, it was freezing too so we didn't stay outside for too long.

We then drove up the New York side of Lake Champlaign and decided to cross into Canada just for fun. That turned into quite an adventure. The US Customs officer was not friendly when we tried to cross back into the US. Long story that I don't feel like sharing at the moment. But we did get back onto American soil and drove back to Burlington on the highway that took us along all the islands of Lake Champlaign. It was a beautiful drive especially at sunset.

The next day we headed east to Woodbury and Stowe. The scenic drive that we had planned had a road closure so the drive took about 3 hours longer than we planned. Beautiful though, it had snowed in the mountains the night before. When we arrived back in Woodbury we visited the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Plant. Eric and I love ice cream so it was something that we couldn't miss.

That night we headed to New Hampshire where we stayed in a small resort town in the middle of the White Mountains. The next day we went to the Flume in Franconian Notch. It was spectacular. Once again a freezing day, but once we got hiking it wasn't too bad.

We then took a tram up a mountain where we could get an awesome view of all the surrounding area. You could see Maine, Vermont, New York, and Canada. The only catch was that it turned into winter when we got to the top.

That night we drove to Bangor, Maine. The next morning we went to visit Acadia National Park. Acadia would be an awesome vacation all on it's own. The only change I would make is to visit in the summer as opposed to the fall. We drove the road through the park and to the top of the bald mountains where the wind was NUTS!! I thought that I was going to blow away.

We had lunch in Bar Harbor and then drove to Portland where we had dinner and then to Boston where we spent the night. It was a lot of driving that day. The next day was our last. We had both been to Boston before so we decided to walk the Freedom Trail. I had not gotten to do that before so it was a lot of fun. Once again a cold day and I was tired, but we had fun.

That afternoon we flew home to Chicago and the trip was over and it was time to get back to real life. Have to admit that real life now is better than real life before. I am loving being married :)

I got married!!

So I know this is old news, in fact I have been married over a month now, but it has been a pretty busy month. Anyway, Eric and I were married on October 10th in the Boise, Idaho Temple. It was a whirlwind of a day, but absolutly wonderful!




My mother and sisters helped me out with pretty much all of the planning and organizing because I was so far away. I know they put in a lot of time and effort and it really paid off. Everything turned out beautiful!



Here are a couple photos that my sister in law Kirstin took for us.

Eric's friends and us.

Eric's family and us.



My parents and us.




Just us :)

Thrilled for Fall

Fall is my favorite season. This isn't a secret or even anything new. Anyone who has known me for a really long time will know how much I love the fall. So in celebration of the first full day of Autumn here is my top ten reasons I am excited for it to be fall. We'll do this David Letterman style.

10. Cool crisp air, for someone not from the midwest the break from the humidity is awesome!

9. Get to start wearing my sweats around the house again, frumpy, but so comfy!

8. Sweater weather!! A term coined by me and my best friend in high school to describe the perfect fall weather.

7. Hot apple cider, my favorite!

6. The smell of harvest time, burning fields, totally reminds me of home.

5. Pumpkin anything!! I love pumpkin and this is the season that I can get as much of it as I want.

4. Changing leaves on trees, Eric & I get to go see the fall color in New England this year. I am so excited!

3. My birthday! Not that I am in the mood to get older, but still a reason to celebrate and eat cake.

2. College football . . . I am an addict!! Really it is the greatest thing ever.

1. Cause I am getting married this fall!! Ok so I know that one was lame, but still a HUGE reason I have been waiting for fall to hurry up and get here.

And that is it, I am a total nerd, but I love Fall!!

Making Adjustments

I'm getting married in a few weeks. I know that isn't new news, but still . . . it has everything to do with my thoughts the past few days.

I have been single for quite a while now . . . my whole life really, but been on my own for a long time. In fact been living completely alone (minus Cletus) for several years now. In face I bought my house two years ago so that I would have a place to make my own and settle in.

Now I am suddenly realizing that my years of complete independance are almost over. You would think that I knew this when I agreed to get married, but for some reason it didn't really hit me till just now.

We are moving Eric out of his apartment this next weekend. So for the past couple weeks some of his things have been gradually making their way down to my house where we will be living. But it wasn't till yesterday when I came home for lunch and saw my kitchen full of boxes, his clothes in my closet, and other boxes and some furniture in my house that I really got it. I have to admit to having a mild panic attack (I think I am stressed out about way too many things which is probaly the main cause of the panic attack, but still). I kind of freaked out which is totally not like me.

I love Eric and I am very excited to spend the rest of forever with him; I am just coming to realize what a huge adjustment it will be to have somone else in my life and sharing a home. This whole married life thing is going to be quite the change for me.

Announcing

As pretty much everyone knows I am engaged to marry Eric Roundy.





We will be sealed in the Boise Idaho Temple on Saturday October, 10th. There will be a reception at the LDS Cherry Lane Building in Meridian, Idaho that night from 7-9pm. We will also be hosting an open house in Naperville, IL on October 24th at the LDS 95th St. Building from 6-8pm. Announcements will be on their way shortly, but many people have been asking for details so here they are :)

We are very excited and would love for all of our friends and family to be able to celebrate with us.

Puppy Pancakes

So I found this pretty funny . . . not sure if ya'll will but I'll share just for fun.

Background info, Eric served his mission in Korea, where they eat dogs and he jokes pretty constantly about Cletus being a good source of food storage and just in general about eating Cletus. Mostly he does it cause it always gets a reaction out of me.

So, yesterday morning Eric was making his grandma's buttermilk pancakes for breakfast. And I guess when he was a kid his grandma would always make them in the shape of a cat. Well he made them all just normal round pancakes at first and then in the end he decided to make a Cletus pancake. He actually got the proportions and shape just right. It turned out pretty good. Anyway, I thought HE was going to eat the Cletus pancake cause he always jokes about eating Cletus, but then he goes and puts it on MY plate. So . . . I had Cletus for breakfast yesterday while the real Cletus watched trying to figure out what in the world was going on. He was pretty tasty. :)

Kind of exciting . . .

Eric and I took a quick trip to Nauvoo this weekend to see the pageant and go to the temple. While we were there he proposed so we are now officially engaged. We plan to get married this fall, barring any issues it will be in Boise in October. When we get everything set I will be sure to let folks know. Anyway, we are just excited :)

On the road again . . . please no!!

So I realize that it has been just about forever since I have updated this and I have done a lot of things and been a lot of places so I will try to give you a quick run down of what I have been up to.

First, had a crazy Spring season with work . . . this year seemed much harder than pervious years and I was all over traveling and not sleeping and just working way too much! But all seems to have turned out well and time for me to start getting ready for the fall and winter seasons.

I went on an AWESOME road trip with my girls Molly and Tia to Gulf Shores, Alamaba. We had a condo accross the street from the beach and spent a week in the sun relaxing, not thinking about work, catching up on sleep, and just enjoying hanging out as friends cause we don't seem to get a lot of time for that anymore. We made a stop by Graceland on the way home so I can officially cross that one off my bucket list! It was fun!

Got home from Alabama just in time to head to Idaho the next weekend. Eric came with me, he was brave to agree to this trip. It was quite the trip. I went to the temple for myself and it was wonderful to have my parents, and four of my siblings, three brothers in law and Eric there with me. An hour later my six little brothers and sisters were sealed to my parents which was a very special experience for our family to all be in the temple together. We then packed up and headed up to Donnelly where we had a cabin on the lake for the long weekend. The weather didn't cooperate but I think we all still enjoyed just hanging out together for a few day. I miss my family so it is always fun to go see them. And it was really special to bring Eric with me and have him be a part of all that.

This past weekend we headed out to Nebraska to visit Eric's parent for the 4th of July. They live in Nebraska's official "4th of July City" so it just seemed appropriate for us to visit :) We had a good time and got home late last night.

Now I am back to work for my first full work week in almost a month and just looking forward to staying home this weekend and enjoying time with Cletus and Eric.

My first niece!!

My twin sister Jennifer and her husband Tyson had their first baby girl last night. Her name is Lily Ann Hansen and she is beautiful and in my opinion she looks just like her mother. I am so excited to go home to visit my family in six weeks and get to actually meet her! Baby girls are so much fun!

Plus it is exciting to add another girl to the family. The boys were four up on us and now that lead is cut down to three :) We'll see how long that lasts ;)

Finally some Spring photos

Ok, sorry it has been forever, life is really crazy these days between work, Eric, and you know . . . just life for me in the Spring. Anyway, this past Sunday Eric reminded me that I needed to take photos of my Spring tulips to share with my sister Jennifer, so we took a few pictures and I thought that I would share. Cletus kind of likes them too :)

This is Cletus and I with my flower pots.



A new mix that Diane and I came up with of Blue Muscari, a funky mini daffodil and a faint little pink tulip. We both decided we loved it!



Just the house in bloom. Thanks to Eric for getting the lawn mowed so that it could stop looking abandoned. We had so much rain and I was just so busy it was starting to look a little scary.

It is official!!

As some of you, but maybe not all of you know my family has grown significantly over the past year or so and not just due to three weddings. My parents decided a little over a year ago to take in 6 little brothers and sisters that needed a good home (well there were 5 at the time and the 6th was on his way). Well exactly 13 months to the day that they arrived in our home (yesterday) the adoptions were all finalized, so I officially have 4 more little brothers and 2 more little sisters. They are great kids and I am so excited that they are officially a part of our family.